Why Fulham are (almost) in the same position as Liverpool

It’s pretty safe to say that Fulham’s 2013/14 Premier League season has gone a little differently to Liverpool’s – to this point, of course.

While Fulham’s season-long underachievement sees them battling furiously to keep their heads above water, Liverpool’s ability to batter teams on a weekly basis sees them command the league’s coveted top spot.

And while you’d have to do more than squint to find any hint of a parallel between the two teams, both have taken to utilising a very specific mental tactic to potentially achieve the unachievable.

With aspirations of a top-four finish, pundits and fans alike have continually shunned Liverpool’s title credentials in favour of Jose Mourinho’s more experienced Chelsea side, or Manuel Pellegrini’s wealth of expensive talent.

Similarly, for much of Fulham’s season, both fans and pundits have decided their fate and dismissed them as nothing more than Premier League cannon fodder.

As a Fulham fan, witnessing back-to-back wins is as rare as meeting an honest politician. The attitude in picking up maximum points away at Aston Villa, and then in arguably a harder game at home to relegation-scrapping Norwich, is exactly what can keep us afloat.

Similarly, Liverpool’s weekend display at home to Manchester City presented a side with the bit between their teeth, and something to prove. In successfully using the positive momentum that comes from maintaining a run of 15 games unbeaten, they showed the world they can indeed win the league.

It’s a cliché, but winning is a habit – one that comes a little easier to some – but a habit nonetheless.

And while it’s taken Fulham far too long to assertively shrug the shackles of nervousness and inconsistency for any prolonged period of time, we seem to have stumbled upon the formula now.

Now both teams are in their own respective driving seat – albeit Fulham, in part, because of Norwich’s horrifying run-in -and as long as both continue to utilise the momentum, they will look back on this season positively.